"In some areas of the state, where adequate surface water supplies are expected for the first time in several years, farmers say the prospect of future water supply instability—along with increasing regulations, wage hikes, soaring input costs and softening U.S. and world commodity markets—creates huge uncertainties that will affect crop planting decisions this year and into the foreseeable future."
Ag Alert
"Farmers are turning to technological solutions, such as predictive analytics software, sensors and robotics, to better understand weather patterns, irrigation techniques and soil health, and to reduce their costs and increase productivity."
Coachella Valley Independent
"Legislation by Senator Lois Wolk to support agricultural practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and store carbon in soil, trees and plants was approved on a 6-0 bipartisan vote of the Senate Environmental Quality Committee this week."
Woodland Daily Democrat
"In crop farming, data analytics software can provide actionable information by combining information on current weather, the slope of the land, type of soil and exposure to sunshine with data captured by sensors measuring moisture, heat, chemicals and other conditions."
Water Online
"In another sign that California’s drought has eased but the state’s water system is far from fully recovered, federal regulators announced Friday that Sacramento Valley farmers would get full water deliveries for the upcoming growing season, but many San Joaquin Valley growers would face another year of severe shortages."
Sacramento Bee
"Silicon Valley and Salinas Valley are about an hour away, but they need not be different worlds. Another new program aims to part the so-called "lettuce curtain" dividing the two industry hubs."
The Salinas Californian
"Though today's St. Patrick's Day meal springs more from Irish-American rather than strictly Irish tradition, the fixings come directly from California farms and ranches. California leads the nation in production of cabbage, carrots, onions and a variety of other fresh vegetables, herbs and spices that go into the meal."
Ag Alert
"Some farmers plan to deliberately flood their orchards as part of testing the benefits of winter flooding. By doing so, they not only ensure the trees have enough water, but they are also helping recharge the groundwater basin in winter when more water is available."
Fresno Business Journal
"Farmers aren’t flooding fields as much and are using scientific data and technology to better pinpoint when, where and how much to irrigate."
High Country News
"Technology usually associated with business and tech geeks – the cloud, big data analytics, machine-to-machine communication and even drones – is being used to make food production more efficient."
South China Morning Post
"Along the Maricopa Highway at the southwestern end of the San Joaquin Valley, rimmed by hardscrabble hills and bobbing oil pumps, stretch miles of lush green groves bearing fluorescent mandarin oranges. Once home to cotton fields, this is now the epicenter of an epic agricultural boom that has industrialized a noble fruit and turned it into a rising star."
The New York Times
"Some farmers attending this week’s World Ag Expo in Tulare, concerns about how farmers are being portrayed in the battle over water is a concern, as some say they’re being painted as the bad guys in all of this."
Visalia Times-Delta
"Western Growers Association, an ag trade group, hopes to find an answer—or answers—at its new Center for Innovation and Technology, in Salinas. The association, which represents farmers in Arizona, California, and Colorado, is working to build an unlikely coalition between farmers and technology entrepreneurs. The partnership seeks to address some of the country’s biggest food concerns—from waste to water issues related to California’s historic drought."
Take Part
"Farmers in California’s San Joaquin valley, devastated by drought since 2011, are changing the way they irrigate to maximize efficiency."
The Western Producer
"California farmers are stepping up to supply fresh fruits, vegetables and meat products to the state’s network of food banks as part of the Farm to Family program."
California Ag Today
"Nearly 60 percent of the winter diet for the millions of ducks and geese migrating through the Central Valley comes from area rice fields."
The Sacramento Bee
"This winter growing season marks the 140th anniversary since the Washington navel orange was first picked and enjoyed in California. Its success and heritage – by way of Goa, Portugal and Brazil – is one of the Golden State’s great stories."
The Sacramento Bee
"Mesh gloves trap the heat and the moisture, potentially saving growers water and the cost of losing frostbitten trees."
KQED News
"Growers are getting better and better at producing more using fewer inputs, less water on the same acreage, but fewer people can appreciate the significance of that because we’ve become so far removed."
The Salinas Californian
"With a drought in California, how are farms and ranches surviving? It’s a tough situation farmers and ranchers are facing, but it can be done!"The Food Dialogues
